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CimmeriansFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Cimmerians or Kimmerians (Greek: Κιμμέριοι, Kimmerioi) were an ancient Indo-European peopleliving north of the Caucasus as early as 1300 BC. In the 8th century BC, under pressure from the Scythians, they

migrated around the Black Sea.[1] Linguistically they are usually regarded as Iranian, or possibly Thracian with anIranian ruling class.

After their exodus from the Pontic steppe, the Cimmerians probably assaulted Urartu about 714 BC; but in 705,after being repulsed by Sargon II of Assyria, they turned towards Anatolia and in 696–695 conquered Phrygia.They reached the height of their power in 652 after taking Sardis, the capital of Lydia. Soon after 619, Alyattesof Lydia defeated them. There are no further mentions of them in historical sources, but it is likely that they settled

in Cappadocia.[2]

Contents

1 History1.1 Origins1.2 Historical appearance

1.3 Possible descendants2 Appearance in myths of other peoples3 Language4 Archaeology5 Timeline

6 Modern fiction7 See also8 References9 Sources10 External links

History

Origins

The origin of the Cimmerians is unclear. They are mostly supposed to have been related to either Iranian or

Thracian speaking groups, or at least to have been ruled by an Iranian elite.[3][4]

According to the 5th century BC Greek historian Herodotus, the Cimmerians inhabited the region north of theCaucasus and the Black Sea during the 8th and 7th centuries BC, in what is now Ukraine and Russia. Thearcheologist Renate Rolle and others have argued that no one has demonstrated with archeological evidence the

presence of Cimmerians in the southern parts of Russia.[5]

Although the 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica reflects Herodotus, stating, "They [the Cimmerians] probably didlive in the area north of the Black Sea, but attempts to define their original homeland more precisely byarchaeological means, or even to fix the date of their expulsion from their country by the Scythians, have not so

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Cimmerian invasions of Colchis,

Urartu and Assyria 715–713 BC

far been completely successful",[3] in recent research academic scholars have made use of documents dating tocenturies earlier than Herodotus, such as intelligence reports to Sargon, and note that these identify the

Cimmerians as living south rather than north of the Black Sea.[6][7]

Scholars in the 19th and 20th centuries had relied on Herodotus's account, but Sir Henry Layard's discoveries inthe royal archives at Nineveh and Calah have enabled the study of new source material that is several centuries

earlier than Herodotus's history.[8] The Assyrian archeological record shows that the Cimmerians, and the land ofGamir, were located not far from Urartu, (an Iron Age kingdom centered around Lake Van in the Armenian

Highland), south of the Caucasus.[6][7] Military intelligence reports to Sargon in the 8th century BC describe the

Cimmerians as occupying territory south of the Black Sea.[9]

Historical appearance

The first historical record of the Cimmerians appears in Assyrianannals in the year 714 BC. These describe how a people termed theGimirri helped the forces of Sargon II to defeat the kingdom ofUrartu. Their original homeland, called Gamir or Uish desh, seems tohave been located within the buffer state of Mannae. The latergeographer Ptolemy placed the Cimmerian city of Gomara in thisregion. After their conquests of Colchis and Iberia in the FirstMillennium BC, the Cimmerians also came to be known as Gimirri in

Georgian. According to Georgian historians,[10] the Cimmeriansplayed an influential role in the development of both the Colchian andIberian cultures. The modern-day Georgian word for hero, გმირი,gmiri, is derived from the word Gimirri. This refers to theCimmerians who settled in the area after the initial conquests.

Some modern authors assert that the Cimmerians included mercenaries, whom the Assyrians knew as Khumri,who had been resettled there by Sargon. Later Greek accounts describe the Cimmerians as having previouslylived on the steppes, between the Tyras (Dniester) and Tanais (Don) rivers. Greek and Mesopotamian sourcesnote several Cimmerian kings including Tugdamme (Lygdamis in Greek; mid-7th century BC), andSandakhshatra (late-7th century).

A "mythical" people also named Cimmerians are described in Book 11, 14 of Homer's Odyssey as living beyondthe Oceanus, in a land of fog and darkness, at the edge of the world and the entrance of Hades. Most likely they

were unrelated to the Cimmerians of the Black Sea.[11]

According to the Histories of Herodotus (c. 440 BC), the Cimmerians had been expelled from the steppes bythe Scythians. To ensure burial in their ancestral homeland, the men of the Cimmerian royal family divided intogroups and fought each other to the death. The Cimmerian commoners buried the bodies along the river Tyras

and fled from the Scythian advance, across the Caucasus and into Anatolia.[12]

The Assyrians recorded the migrations of the Cimmerians, as the former people's king Sargon II was killed inbattle against them in 705 BC. The Cimmerians were subsequently recorded as having conquered Phrygia in696–695 BC, prompting the Phrygian king Midas to take poison rather than face capture. In 679 BC, during thereign of Esarhaddon of Assyria (r. 681–669 BC), they attacked Cilicia and Tabal under their new ruler Teushpa.Esarhaddon defeated them near Hubushna (Hupisna).

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In 654 BC or 652 BC – the exact date is unclear – the Cimmerians attacked the kingdom of Lydia, killing theLydian king Gyges and causing great destruction to the Lydian capital of Sardis. They returned ten years laterduring the reign of Gyges' son Ardys II; this time they captured the city, with the exception of the citadel. The fallof Sardis was a major shock to the powers of the region; the Greek poets Callinus and Archilochus recorded thefear that it inspired in the Greek colonies of Ionia, some of which were attacked by Cimmerian and Treresraiders.

The Cimmerian occupation of Lydia was brief, however, possibly due to an outbreak of plague. They were

beaten back by Alyattes II of Lydia.[13] This defeat marked the effective end of Cimmerian power. The termGimirri was used about a century later in the Behistun inscription (c. 515 BC) as a Babylonian equivalent ofPersian Saka (Scythians). Otherwise, Cimmerians disappeared from western Asian historical accounts, and theirfate was unknown. It has been speculated that they settled in Cappadocia, known in Armenian as Գամիրք,Gamir-kʿ (the same name as the original Cimmerian homeland in Mannae).

Possible descendants

Herodotus thought that the Cimmerians and the Thracians were closely related, writing that both peoplesoriginally inhabited the northern shore of the Black Sea, and both were displaced about 700 BC, by invadersfrom the east. Whereas the Cimmerians would have departed this ancestral homeland by heading east and southacross the Caucasus, the Thracians migrated southwest into the Balkans, where they established a successful andlong-lived culture. The Tauri, the original inhabitants of Crimea, are sometimes identified as a people related tothe Cimmerians and later the Taurisci.

Premodern historians asserted Cimmerian descent for the Celts or the Germans, arguing from the similarity ofCimmerii to Cimbri or Cymry. It is unlikely that either Proto-Celtic or Proto-Germanic peoples entered westernEurope as late as the 7th century BC; their formation was commonly associated with the Bronze Age Urnfieldand Nordic Bronze Age cultures, respectively. The etymology of Cymro "Welshman" (plural: Cymry),connected to the Cimmerians by 17th-century Celticists, is now accepted by Celtic linguists as being derived

from a Brythonic word *kom-brogos,[14][15][16][17] meaning "compatriots", (i.e. fellow-Brythons as opposed tothe Anglo-Saxons).

The Cambridge Ancient History classifies the Maeotians as either a people of Cimmerian ancestry or as

Caucasian aboriginals under Iranian overlordship.[18]

Appearance in myths of other peoples

In sources beginning with the Royal Frankish Annals, the Merovingian kings of the Franks traditionally tracedtheir lineage through a pre-Frankish tribe called the Sicambri (or Sugambri), mythologized as a group of"Cimmerians" from the mouth of the Danube river, but who instead came from Gelderland in modern Netherlands

and are named for the Sieg river[19] or which could derive from that of the Cimbri as their chieftain names havethe same suffix -rix.

Another possible link between the Cimmerians from the Tyras and Tanais rivers and the Nordic countries andpossibly the Sicambri of the lower Rhine is the fact that the eastern amber road was a trade link between theBaltic Sea and the Black Sea over which there was a diffusion of cultures. The main eastern amber road was fullyoperational as soon as the 19th century BC and went over rivers Dnepr, Pripyat, Western Bug and Vistula.There are also archaeological evidence in southern Scandinavia showing the arrival of an invasive culture on theshores of the Baltic Sea around 1200 BC, which is about the same time that heralded the younger NordicBronze Age. It seems that this invasive culture stretched from the Vistula estuary over Scania, Zealand, Fyn andHimmerland in Northern Jutland and Helgoland, which largely encompasses an arch of the richest deposits of

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Cimmerian

Region Caucasus

Era 8th century BC

Languagefamily

Indo-European

(unclassified)Cimmerian

Language codes

ISO 639-3

None (mis)

Linguistlist

08i

(http://multitree.org/codes/08i)

Glottolog None

amber in Europe. It is known from the Greek cartographer Pytheas of Massalia (4th century BC) that this archcorresponded to the location of a people Pytheas called Gotones. Pytheas also mentions that the Gotones wereneighbors of the Teutones that lived in south Jutland and Holstein.

According to Pliny the Elder, the stretch of lands between the Vistula Estuary to the Black Sea was called'Scythia'. Thus, it is possible that there was a top-stratum of Cimmerian knights taking hold of the Baltic amberdeposits as early as BCE 1200 – 1000 and that they later gave rise to the Gotones, Teutones and Cimbrii and inconsequence to the Sicambri as well. Looking for other indications, it seems that 'Cim' is cognate with an IEP'khim' from which is derived 'home' in English and 'heim' in Old Norse. The second part, 'mer', would eithermean 'sea', probably pointing to a homeland near the Black Sea, or potentially meaning 'great' (cc: Gothic'Waldamar').

Also, the Biblical name "Gomer" has been linked in some sources to the Cimmerians.

Language

Only a few personal names in the Cimmerian languagehave survived in Assyrian inscriptions:

Te-ush-pa-a; according to the Hungarian linguist

János Harmatta, it goes back to Old Iranian Tavis-

paya "swelling with strength".[4] Mentioned in the

annals of Esarhaddon, has been compared to theHurrian war deity Teshub; others interpret it asIranian, comparing the Achaemenid name Teispes

(Herodotus 7.11.2).Dug-dam-mei (Dugdammê) king of the Ummân-

Manda (nomads) appears in a prayer ofAshurbanipal to Marduk, on a fragment at theBritish Museum. According to professor Harmatta,

it goes back to Old Iranian Duγda-maya "giving

happiness".[4] Other spellings include Dugdammi,

and Tugdammê. Edwin M. Yamauchi also interprets the name as Iranian, citing Ossetic Tux-domæg

"Ruling with Strength."[20] The name appears corrupted to Lygdamis in Strabo 1.3.21.Sandaksatru, son of Dugdamme. This is an Iranian reading of the name, and Manfred Mayrhofer (1981)

points out that the name may also be read as Sandakurru. Mayrhofer likewise rejects the interpretation of"with pure regency" as a mixing of Iranian and Indo-Aryan. Ivancik suggests an association with theAnatolian deity Sanda. According to Professor J. Harmatta, it goes back to Old Iranian Sanda-Kuru

"Splendid Son".[4] Kur/Kuru is still used as "son" in the Kurdish languages, and in modified form inPersian as korr, for the male offspring of horses.

Some researchers have attempted to trace various place names to Cimmerian origins. It has been suggested that

Cimmerium gave rise to the Turkic toponym Qırım (which in turn gave rise to the name "Crimea").[21]

Based on ancient Greek historical sources, a Thracian[22][23] or a Celtic[24] association is sometimes assumed.According to Carl Ferdinand Friedrich Lehmann-Haupt, the language of the Cimmerians could have been a"missing link" between Thracian and Iranian.

Archaeology

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Koban culture (Northern Caucasus, 12th to 4th centuries BC)

Cernogorovka culture (9th to 8th centuries)Novocerkassk culture (8th to 7th centuries, between Danube and Volga)

Timeline

800 BC Cimmerians begin migration out of the Pontic-Caspian steppe into Anatolia following incursionsinto their territories by Scythians.

721–715 BC – Sargon II mentions a land of Gamirr near to Urartu.714 – suicide of Rusas I of Urartu, after defeat by both the Assyrians and Cimmerians.

705 – Sargon II of Assyria dies on an expedition against the Kulummu.695 – Cimmerians destroy Phrygia. Death of king Midas.679/678 – Gimirri under a ruler called Teushpa invade Assyria from Hubuschna (Cappadocia?).

Esarhaddon of Assyria defeats them in battle.676-674 – Cimmerians invade and destroy Phrygia, and reach Paphlagonia.

654 or 652 – Gyges of Lydia dies in battle against the Cimmerians. Sack of Sardis; Cimmerians andTreres plunder Ionian colonies.644 – Cimmerians occupy Sardis, but withdraw soon afterwards

637-626 – Cimmerians defeated by Alyattes II.c. 515 – Last historical record of Cimmerians, in the Behistun inscription of Darius.

Modern fiction

Robert E. Howard used the name "Cimmerians" for the people from whom his most well-known character,Conan the Barbarian, is descended. The people depicted in the Conan books have a quasi-Irish culture (forexample, "Conan" is an Old Irish name), and are depicted as being the legendary ancestors of both the Gaels ofIreland and Scotland and the historic Cimmerians of the Black Sea. A consequent 1982 film brought this worldto the larger popular culture. The Cimmerians were portrayed as a nation of artisans, although bearers of asparse 'secret of steel', possibly arms producers, with some warfare tradition.

Episode 9 of the Stargate series takes place on the planet Cimmeria (P3X-974), a planet inhabited by Vikingdescendants – making these "Cimmerians" loosely related to the historical ones – see Cimmerians (Stargate)

Use of the Cimmerian language and history is referenced and even metaphorically central to the apocryphalnature of progress in the plot of If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. It is described by Italo Calvino's characters asancient and unknown, but to a very select few individuals, and use of the language in writings was a matter ofconspiracy theories.

See also

Cimbri

Thraco-CimmerianSigambri

KymrisCymruCrimea

References

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Wikisource has the text ofthe 1920 Encyclopedia

1. Gordon, Bruce. "Regnal Chronologies". Retrieved 8 May 2013.2. "Cimmerian (people)". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 8 September 2012.3. "The origin of the Cimmerians is obscure. Linguistically they are usually regarded as Thracian or as Iranian, or

at least to have had an Iranian ruling class." "Cimmerian" (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9082650), inEncyclopædia Britannica, 2006, Retrieved August 30, 2006. Quote: "The origin of the Cimmerians is obscure.Linguistically they are usually regarded as Thracian or as Iranian, or at least to have had an Iranian ruling class."

4. J.Harmatta: "Scythians" UNESCO Collection of History of Humanity: Volume III: From the Seventh Century BCto the Seventh Century AD, Routledge/UNESCO. 1996, p. 182

5. Renate Rolle, "Urartu und die Reiternomaden", in: Saeculum 28, 1977, S. 291–3396. Cozzoli, Umberto (1968). I Cimmeri. Rome Italy: Arti Grafiche Citta di Castello (Roma).7. Salvini, Mirjo (1984). Tra lo Zagros e l'Urmia: richerche storiche ed archeologiche nell'Azerbaigian iraniano.

Rome Italy: Ed. Dell'Ateneo (Roma).8. K. Deller, "Ausgewählte neuassyrische Briefe betreffend Urarṭu zur Zeit Sargons II.," in P.E. Pecorella and M.

Salvini (eds), Tra lo Zagros e l'Urmia. Ricerche storiche ed archeologiche nell'Azerbaigian Iraniano,Incunabula Graeca 78 (Rome 1984) 97–122.

9. Kristensen, Anne Katrine Gade (1988). Who were the Cimmerians, and where did they come from?: Sargon II,and the Cimmerians, and Rusa I. Copenhagen Denmark: The Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters.

10. Berdzenishvili, N., Dondua V., Dumbadze, M., Melikishvili G., Meskhia, Sh., Ratiani, P., History of Georgia(Vol. 1), Tbilisi, 1958, pp. 34–36

11. "Cimmerians" (Κιμμέριοι) (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2357414), Henry Liddell & Robert Scott, Perseus,Tufts University

12. Herodotus, Histories, Book 4, sections 11–12.13. Herodotus, 1.16; Polyaenus, 7.2.1, Sergei R. Tokhtas’ev "Cimmerians" in the Encyclopedia Iranica (1991),

several nineteenth-century summaries.14. Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, vol. I, p. 770.15. Jones, J. Morris. Welsh Grammar: Historical and Comparative. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.16. Russell, Paul. Introduction to the Celtic Languages. London: Longman, 1995.17. Delamarre, Xavier. Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise. Paris: Errance, 2001.18. Boardman & Edwards 1991, p. 57219. Geary, Patrick J. Before France and Germany: The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World.

New York: Oxford University Press, 198820. Yamauchi, Edwin M (1982). Foes from the Northern Frontier: Invading Hordes from the Russian Steppes.

Grand Rapids MI USA: Baker Book House.21. Asimov, Isaac (1991). Asimov's Chronology of the World. New York: HarperCollins. p. 50.22. Meljukova, A. I. (1979). Skifija i Frakijskij Mir. Moscow.23. Strabo ascribes the Treres to the Thracians at one place (13.1.8) and to the Cimmerians at another (14.1.40)24. Posidonius in Strabo 7.2.2.

Sources

Boardman, John; Edwards, I. E. S. (1991). The Cambridge Ancient History. Volume 3. Part 2.Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521227178. Retrieved March 2, 2015.

Ivanchik A.I. "Cimmerians and Scythians", 2001Terenozhkin A.I., Cimmerians, Kiev, 1983Cimmerian. (2006). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved August 30, 2006, from EncyclopædiaBritannica Premium Service: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9082650Collection of Slavonic and Foreign Language Manuscripts – St.St Cyril and Methodius – Bulgarian

National Library: http://www.nationallibrary.bg/slavezryk_en.html

External links

Wiki Classical Dictionary: Cimmerians(http://www.ancientlibrary.com/wcd/Cimmerians)

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Americana articleCimmerians.

Cimmerians on Stevequayle.com

(http://www.stevequayle.com/Giants/W.Europe/W.Europe4.html)Cimmerians on Regnal Chronologies (http://www.hostkingdom.net/siberia.html#Cimmerians)map of the distribution of "Cimmerian" bronze finds in Europe(http://www.kimmerier.de/Abbildungen/abb004.jpg)

Cimmerians (http://www.livius.org/cg-cm/cimmerians/cimmerians.html) by Jona LenderingDorin Sârbu, A controversial archeological phenomenon: the Cimmerian Culture (Romanian (full)(http://apar.archaeology.ro/ds_artrja.htm) and English (abstract)(http://apar.archaeology.ro/ds_artrjaeng.htm))https://www.academia.edu/20037727/_The_Cimmerians_their_origins_movements_and_their_difficulties_

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Categories: Cimmerians Tribes described primarily by Herodotus Ancient people

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